Cliche
by Flames of the Sun
Summary: My name is Robin. Her name is Starfire. For years, I've been there for her, saved her, caught her when she fell. She's done the same for me. I love her. But it's too late for that now. ::A cliched plot done MY way, request by Rain Sanctuary:: ON HIATUS


Hey everybody!! This is my very first request fic, courtesy of the request by Rain Sanctuary. I hope you like it!!

(NOTE:: Once again, Emeralds is still my main fic, but I have to get some of these other plotlines out of here before Starfire ends up a vampire with dog-ears and Tamaran becomes a teacup of some kind. And you don't want to see that.)

Disclaimer: Not mine... technically the idea isn't even really mine. Props to Rain Sanctuary and... whoever the heck invented Teen Titans.

_Cliché_

Prologue :Boy Meets Girl:

"Freeze!"

The word exploded into the dark, cold night, fierce and authoritative. It was answered only by a girl's anguished cry as she stumbled and fell to the ground. The moonless, December night did little to cast light on the dirty ally-way and the normally beautiful and twinkling ice had instead become menacingly sharp and bitterly cold. The pursuers fanned out in the mouth of the ally, cutting off their prey's escape. Their eyes were narrow and harsh, ready to succeed at this first mission. Triumph was so close.

The hunters were known as the Teen Titans, four freshly united teenagers armed with extraordinary gifts, eager to prove themselves to the citizens of Jump City. The prey had no name and was known only as the Titans' first assignment, a trial run really. The girl, known only as Number Four, was an escapee from a prison of some sort in a nearby city and was a danger to herself and other people. If they could manage to capture her and return her, alive, to the prison, there was almost a complete guarantee of government funding for them. They would become the official protectors of Jump City, California.

The figure at the end of the ally stilled instantly, her back and shoulders tensing. Suddenly, she looked up above them to the rooftops. She struggled to her feet in a flash and was crouching before any of them could blink. Quickly, though, a black barrier stretched across the rooftops, leaving the only exit behind the Titans. She clenched her jaw and shot a look at them over her shoulder.

"Don't even think about it," the biggest of the teens growled. He was both tall and broad with a smooth, deep voice. In the darkness, one of his eyes glowed a menacing red and the bare bit of light reflected off of him slightly. He leveled his arm at Number Four, though instead of a hand at it's end there was a quickly loading cannon.

"Easy, Cyborg. This won't even have to go that way if she knows what's good for her." The one who spoke was not much more than a boy, a tall, dark-haired teen with an even darker mask hiding the upper portions of his face. He was dressed in a ridiculous multi-colored kind of uniform, but he wore it with authority and pride, enough that it was hard to even imagine him being mocked in it. He quirked an eyebrow at the girl behind him, pale and dressed in a black leotard and a blue cloak. "Good thinking, Raven," he complimented quietly.

Raven grunted, narrowing her eyes, shaded completely black. Her short, lavender hair was fanning slightly out behind her as she levitated, maintaining her force field. She looked down at an emerald wolf at her feet. "Keep an eye on her, Beastboy. Something's changing from the last few fights." The wolf nodded silently and stood still.

Number Four stood and faced them. For the first time, the Teen Titans got a good look at her. They drew a collective breath. Number Four was a girl, no younger than they, with ruby red hair that hung down past her shoulders and wide, fearful green eyes. Her face was thin and delicate and her skin, though pale, held a strange orange tint. Her eyes were narrow, determined, and alight with the same emerald light that had been radiating from her since their meeting at twilight. It was midnight now. Number Four seemed exhausted of her power.

The Titans stood still, waiting for her to make the first move. She had proven herself to be a skilled fighter and none wanted to enter a battle with her rashly. She stood rigidly before them, her chest heaving and her hands shaking at her sides. She was mumbling something under her breath, nonsense-sounding words. Eventually, it began a chant, low and desperate sounding, of the same sounds. "Zengtha ru maka. Kek zengtha ror." Suddenly, she clenched her jaw and moved.

In one silent, fluid movement, she was bowed at their feet, her forehead inches from the ground. The Titans glanced at her, stunned, and then at each other skeptically. Number Four's limbs were thin and bruised. Once again, they were disturbed to note her mostly naked status. She trembled obviously on the hard, cold ground.

"Help," she mumbled, her voice slow and unsure. "No more experiments." She squeezed her eyes shut. "No more experiments," she whispered, heartbreakingly. "P-please. Help-p-p." Her shivering was beginning to interfere. "Pleas-s-se h-help. No m-more exp-periments-s-s," she mumbled over and over again, rearranging the three phrases over and over again, her stuttering getting worse and worse from cold and fright.

The Titans looked toward Robin, whose gaze had been steadily softening. "Raven?" he questioned softly. Number Four continue her mumbling, this time her voice thick with emotion and her face streaked with tears.

"I sense no hostility from her," Raven answered with a strange look at the girl at their feet.

"Of course you don't!" Cyborg exclaimed. "What the hell were they _doing _to her at that 'prison'?" He made the appropriate air quotes around prison. He seemed disgusted by the mere thought. Robin looked down at her. She had fallen silent, only inhaling and exhaling shakily. He kneeled and offered her his hand and then his smile, though he was still wary of her.

"Help," he said simply.

She took hold of his hand.

And everything changed.

-!-

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, _shit_, crap!"

My name is Robin. I am the fourteen year-old leader of the Teen Titans, the sole guardians of Jump City, California against the unknown and the super powerful bad guys that always seem to pop up these days. Before this, I was protégé, sidekick, assistant, whatever you want to call it, to Batman. _The_ Batman. Together, we have faced horrors that could make a hardened war vetran cry like a girl and pee his pants. I know how to keep a cool head.

That is, until it comes to _her. _

I skidded to a stop in the doorway of the common room, glancing around frantically. I had been running from room to room in this fashion for a little over fifteen minutes by then and my usually carefully spiked hair was limp. I breathed a temporary sigh of relief as I spotted Raven, perched on one of the island stools, her nose buried in a book. I threw her a desperate look. "Raven!" I called frantically. To my irritation, she chose to take her sweet time looking up from whatever book it was this time. "Raven!" I snapped again and finally she met my eyes with a light glare.

"Yes?"

For a moment I gaped at her. How could she be so calm in such a situation? I mean, sure, that obnoxious, yet necessary, alarm wasn't blaring at the moment, but that didn't mean that there was not an emergency going on! I clenched my jaw and held up a yellow communicator, a capital "T" etched into it over a black background. We'd decided that the "T" would be our insignia. The communicator was a little invention of Cyborg's so that we could speak to and find each other in a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, this was not mine nor hers.

This fact was the emergency and possibly the end of the universe.

"Where's Kori?" I blurted. Raven blinked blankly at me and I groaned. "You have _got_ to be kidding me! _Koriand'r_?! Alien girl we picked up three and a half months ago? Doesn't speak English? Last time anyone let her go off alone she came back with _seven_ rare car parts, The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe, and three _pounds_ of tofu; all of which were stolen? _That _Kori?"

Raven rolled her eyes and went back to her book. "Oh, she speaks _some _English, you know. She's doing remarkably well for three months of the crash course." I grit my teeth, determined not to bite off the head of one of my best teammates.

"Do you know where she is or not?" I growled.

Raven closed her book with a snap. "I thought you were doing something with her today. She's been bouncing off of the walls in excitement for a while now. Besides, I think we beat the "no stealing" lesson in pretty well. I'm sure she's fine."

I was stunned again. _Fine? _She was sure that Kori would be _fine_? That was pathetic.

In all of my years of being a super hero, I had never experienced anything like Koriand'r. She had turned out to be so much more than just a pretty criminal at the end of an allyway. After that night, we had discovered that the "prison" she had escaped from was really nothing more than a scientific research facility that had found her when she crash landed on earth and caged her here, subjecting her to multiple medical experiments. They claimed that she had never been treated in an unethical way in their care. Of course, their court date was coming. Number Four became Koriand'r, or Kori for short, and she's been with us ever since, an honorary member of the Teen Titans.

Kori… well, like I said, I had never experienced anything like her. Once she had been living with us for a few weeks, it was like she came alive. Her green eyes began to sparkle and her orange skin became radiant. She flitted around the tower with a perpetual, curious grin on her face, getting into things like a toddler and charming her way out of trouble in the same way. Her knowledge of the English language came solely from what she could pick up since none of us had any idea what her native language was, and yet, she had a refreshingly straight forward way of communicating with all of us. Expertly, she had wormed her way into all of our hearts, an angel sent to shake up our lives.

Unfortunately, it was this language barrier that got her into most of her trouble. Honestly, it was the only thing keeping me from making her a full Titan. After all, what could I do with a teammate who doesn't understand the meaning of "duck!" or "look our!"? It was simply too dangerous for her.

"There," Raven exclaimed suddenly and softly. I looked up at her hopefully. "She's back. She's coming down the hallway as we speak. Happy?" she added sarcastically. I rolled my eyes.

"That depends on what she brought back…" I mumbled as I sprinted from the room, eager to catch her before she decided to take another trip. The hallway outside of the Common Room was empty, so I headed for the one closest to the elevator. If she was just getting back, that would be where she was coming from.

I rounded the corner at a run, only to collide with a warm, solid figure with a resounding _smack!_ I was thrown back down to the ground with a grunt. For a moment, I sat there dazed, rubbing the back of my head, wondering who I was going to have to chew out for leaving a vertical slab of concrete in the middle of the hallway. I was still planning my lecture when a melodious giggle passed over me.

Kori.

She stood there, looking absolutely innocent in her dark purple sweater and faded denim jeans. She never did much with her hair besides combing it and taking care of it appropriately and so it hung just so down her back, straight and simple. Her form had filled out nicely since she had started living with us and eating properly. It was her eyes, though, that had gone through the most drastic transformation. Before, her eyes had been hard and apprehensive. But since coming to us, her eyes had become lighter, and happier. When she looked at any of us, you could see the absolute trust there. It was a bit like being presented with a fragile gift that you knew you did not deserve, and so making sure to guard it with your life none the less.

Ahem… but, anyway, Kori stood there, in her normal clothes, utterly unmoved by our collision and munching happily on a chocolate chip cookie. My heart sank. I stood slowly, rubbing my temples warily. I could not help but think of the hours it took me to straighten out Kori's last shopping day. I was about to speak, but Kori cut me off, reaching forward to wrap her arms around me in an uncomfortably tight hug. As usual, my face flared and I coughed, pushing her away as gently as I could. She was unruffled by this and simply took another bite of her cookie, beaming at me.

"Hello, Robin," she mumbled around her cookie. I took a deep breath, preparing to broach the subject carefully.

"Kori! Where _were_ you?" Smooth.

Kori gave me a confused look. "Hallway? Tower?" she attempted to appease me. I shook my head. Of course, she understood the concept of "where", but she had yet to lock onto changes in tense. She had different ways of communicating with all of us. With Raven, who decided she might want to learn some of her language, she spoke her native tongue almost exclusively. With Beastboy, she did a lot of gesturing and facial expressions. With Cyborg, she mixed English and her own language the best she could. However, because I was the one pushing her the hardest to learn English, she struggled through her English in my presence.

"No, that's not what I mean…" I had a sudden burst of intuition. "Here, where did this come from?" I said, pointing at the cookie. She looked at it blankly before throwing me a sheepish grin and offering me another, whole cookie.

"Excuse me," she said politely. I rolled my eyes, sure that this was Raven's doing. I shook my head again.

"No, _where_ did _those _come from?" I asked, pointing at the cookie. Suddenly, her smile grew wider, a smile I had come to know as one of comprehension. She pressed the cookie into my hand still and pushed a lock of hair out of her eyes.

"The mall!" she said triumphantly. "Here, for you," she added, tapping the cookie. I smiled briefly and took a small nibble from the cookie to satisfy her. Her face lit up again and she held up both hands toward me, palms outward in a sign she had come to equate with "wait". In a flash, she had knelt to dig in a shopping bag at her side and came back up, holding a small red box in her palm. She took my hand and gave the box to me, grinning radiantly the entire time. I could not help my heart from sinking at the sight of it. I cleared my throat.

"Kori," I began gently. "You did pay for this, didn't you? Tell me you paid someone some money for this!" I pled. Her eyes were questioning. I held up the box. "Did you pay money?" I tried again, slowly and clearly. "You didn't steal, did—"

I had to stop, not being able to take the crestfallen look she was giving me. She bit her lower lip and drew back a bit, holding one of her arms in one hand. She sighed. "Stealing is bad and superheroes do not steal. Always pay money for things. Take someone with you when you go out," she recited in a low, subdued voice. I blinked. So maybe we had gone a bit overboard with the anti-stealing sermon. She could not have known what half of those words meant. She finally met my gaze, her eyes wide and beseeching. "Cyborg came!" she exclaimed. "We go to the mall and," she dug into the bag again, reemerging with two small scraps of paper. "Look!" I looked closer and found the papers to be receipts. "Cyborg said, 'These are receipts. They prove that you did not steal something. Always save the receipts, shortie,' Here receipts!" I sighed in relief again and smiled at her, breaking off a piece of the cookie and offering it to her.

"Okay. Good." I looked down at the box still resting in my hand. "What's this though?"

Like a light bulb, she had flipped from sad to gleeful and she rose a few inches into the air, clapping her hands. With a squeal she burst into a string of unintelligible words, probably in her own language. I gave her a stern look and she rolled her eyes good naturedly. I was taken aback by this… well, human, gesture and could not help but grin back. She amended herself, saying, "Gift, gift, gift for you!" She settled back onto the ground and regained her composure primly. "Raven, Beastboy, Cyborg, I give gifts! None for you! This," she pointed at the box. "For you!" She folded her hands in front of her and fixed me with an expectant stare. She was suddenly very still and I had to blink again to readjust myself to her switch-like moods.

I coughed and looked down at the small box that fit so easily in my palm. I was a deep, rich red with a delicate silver design etched over it. I turned it over and found the lid, opening it hesitantly. You could never tell with Kori's strange sense of taste. Carefully, I dumped the contents of the box into my palm, ready for anything…

It was a bird.

Kori squealed and hunkered down so that her eyes were level with my hand. "Robin is a bird! You are Robin! Like it?" she asked breathlessly. I stared down at it with soft eyes, the tiniest of smirks on my lips. The tiny, porcelain bird was painted elaborately in brilliant colors, not unlike my costume. My smile grew. "I do like it," I mumbled. "Thank y—"

I had looked up to thank her, only to find her staring back at me, so much closer than she had been. My eyes went round. She was a bit taller than me and stared down at me with curious, bashful, and sheepish eyes. I was about to question her, ready to attribute her closeness to her love of contact, when it happened.

She surged forward and pressed her lips firmly and roughly against mine. Positively, at that moment, my eyes almost bugged out of my head and a million thoughts raced through at once. Should I push her away? Would she feel rejected? Did this even mean the same thing on her planet? Should I… pull her closer?

Luckily, or otherwise, she pulled away before I could decide on a course of action. The contact must have lasted no more that a few moments, but… it had seemed so much longer.

Koriand'r blinked, once, twice, took a deep breath and spoke. "So, do you find favor in your present? I tried so to find a present that was right for you. It was hard because the others… they are open. I can tell what they want. You are more difficult. Do you like it?"

I was stunned.

A blush spread across her cheeks at me stare. "Also, by the way, I would be called Starfire… in your language. I do like them both, however," she amended.

Life with Kori… Starfire…

It was sure to change my life forever… for better or worse.

* * *

Quick poll, which is better, the section in first person or in thrid person? Let me know!


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